Inspection Detail

Inspection: 120300058 - Vanco Distribution Inc Dba Vanco Heavy Lift

Inspection Information - Office: Long Beach District Office

Investigation Summary

At approximately 9:00 a.m. on November 2, 1999, Employee #1, a welder in the warehouse of a trucking and cargo company, was refueling the gasoline engine of the thermal arc welding equipment while its engine was hot. He was siphoning gasoline by mouth from a 30-gallon plastic container into the engine's tank when the gasoline fumes ignited, leaped onto the portable container, and engulfed him in flames. The employer managed to throw the container away from the building and coworkers in the yard came to his aid and extinguished the fire. Employee #1 sustained second-degree burns over 30 percent of his body. He was transported to Seaview Medical Center, and then transferred to the burn unit of Torrance (CA) Memorial Hospital. The cause of the accident was not allowing the engine to cool off before refueling, as stated on the manufacturing label adjacent to the gas cap. The employer was cited for an accident-related violation, serious, of T8CCR 3328(b).

Keywords: BURN, HEAT, FLAMMABLE LIQUID, FLAMMABLE VAPORS, WORK RULES, FIRE, WELDER, GASOLINE